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Lost Gets Wrinkled in Time January 23, 2009

Lost has done it again. The season five premiere lived up to my expectations. It was full of surprises, adventure, new twists, and of course, new questions. Rather than try to summarize the entire two hour season premiere, I’ll examine the characters and plots

The Island

So, apparently when Ben moved the island, it didn’t just jump to another part of the ocean – it moved through time and space.

The blinding white light and weird noises were very similar to when Desmond turned the key in the hatch (at the end of season two?). Afterwards, he found himself having visions of other times and places. Desmond’s hatch experience and Ben’s wheel turning experience must be related.

Now the island and the remaining crash survivors are traveling through time.

Neil, aka one of “those people” who have been there all along

When the island “moved,” so did Sawyer, Rose, Bernard, Daniel, Charlotte, Miles, some guy named Neil, and a handful of other unidentified people.

Neil was played by Sean Whalen, who will always be Roach in the 1991 movie The People Under the Stairs to me:

The introduction of new Oceanic Flight 815 survivors, who have supposedly been hanging out with the core characters all along, has probably been the silliest aspect of the show. Even though the season three episode chronicling the death of Nikki and Paolo was clever, their involvement in that season was nothing more than a distraction. At least now the writers use it as a bit of comic relief. In the case of Neil, Sawyer couldn’t get his name right, and no one else really seemed to know him. It was as if he’d just been hanging around not being helpful all this time. It’s fitting that he went down in a blaze of glory, literally, being hit by a barrage of flaming arrows after his enraged rant about the hopelessness of their situation.

It’s not that new characters are unwelcome – Ben, Richard, Charles Widmore, Penny, Desmond and others have become an integral part of the show – it’s just that their introduction into the show needs to have a purpose and explanation. So, with that being said, rest in peace, Neil.

Sawyer, Juliet, Rose, and Bernard

Now that Jack has left the building, Sawyer seems to have taken over as the fearless leader of the slowly dwindling Oceanic 815 survivors. Juliet has taken on the role of the voice of reason. Meanwhile, Bernard is still trying to do more than he is capable of, and Rose is losing patience with it.

Sawyer thinks that everyone he cares about is dead, since Kate, Aaron, and Hurley, along with Sayid, Jack, Sun, and Frank were in the helicopter that he thinks made it to the freighter before it exploded. He must be feeling pretty hopeless.

Locke

Just after Locke was crowned the king of the Others, he found himself swept away through time, and all alone. Was he moving to the same places in time as Sawyer et al?

First he saw Mr. Eko’s brother’s plane crash, and was apprehended by none other than Ethan when he went to investigate.

Next he found himself having a heart to heart with Richard. Apparently Locke had already talked to Richard in another time about what was going on, and they would meet again later on. Richard told Locke to give him a compass the next time that they meet, and that Locke has to get back the people who left, and he also has to die in order to save the island. This was one of the most cryptic parts of the episode, because I wondered why Richard didn’t time travel with the island, when he had a conversation with Locked about this situation, etc.

By the end of the episode, Locke saved Sawyer and the gang from some previously unknown soldiers, who seemed to have British accents? So now Locke, Sawyer, and the rest of the remaining island castaways will continue jumping through time together.

We also saw Locke’s body in a coffin again, three years after the island moved. It will be interesting to see how he left the island, what he did afterwards, and how he died.

Daniel, Charlotte, and Miles

These researchers from the freighter suddenly find themselves traveling through time with the people they came to fake rescue.

Miles continues to make snarky comments and communicate with dead things (he went “hunting” and just so happened to come across a wild boar that had recently died).

Charlotte is losing her memory and bleeding from her nose. Neither of those can be a good sign.

Daniel is giving a play by play about their time traveling adventures: what’s happening, where they are, why they can’t change the past, etc.

Last season Miles mentioned to Charlotte that she spent a lot of time trying to get “back” to the island. I’m thinking that Charlotte was once an inhabitant of the island. I mentioned this idea in a post from last season. Daniel seems to have a special interest in her. I hope they will give us answers about this soon, or at least some more hints. I’ve seen other people theorize that Daniel is actually Charlotte’s father, but I don’t think so.

Daniel seems positioned to play a crucial role in this season’s time traveling escapades. He gave hatch-dwelling, button-pushing Desmond a message to go find his mother at Oxford. Perhaps the old cloaked lady that was working with Ben is his mother. This lady, Ms. Hawking, also spoke to Desmond years earlier when he was buying an engagement ring for Penny. Hmmm… things are getting more and more complicated.

Desmond

Well, it looks like Penny and Desmond’s endless ocean vacation is actually coming to an end, courtesy of a dream/memory that Desmond had of talking to Daniel back in his hatch days.

Now Desmond plans to travel to Oxford University to find Daniel’s mother, in order to save all of his island friends.

Where is Frank the pilot? We know that he is in on the lie with the Oceanic Six, but we don’t know what he’s doing now. Last time we saw him he was still on Penny’s boat.

The Others

Richard – What a strange character Richard is. He doesn’t age, or at least doesn’t seem to. Maybe he has just been jumping around in time at the same age rather than not aging. I can’t figure out why he (and I assume the other Others) didn’t move when the island moved. He told Locke that he “didn’t go anywhere.” Well, he must have gone somewhere, or he would have been left in the middle of the ocean when the island disappeared.

Ben – I’m not sure if Ben still counts as an Other since he’s been banished from the island, but for the sake of convenience, I’ll still consider him one. After Ben turned the wheel to move the island, he suddenly found himself in the middle of a desert, in another time. Since then, he has been working with Sayid to kill some people whose names are on a list. (We learned all of this in an episode last season. I am foggy on the details.) Now he has decided to round up the Oceanic Six and somehow make it back to the island. I assume he also hasn’t forgotten about his vow to Charles Widmore that he would find and kill Penny as revenge for Alex’s death.

Ms. Hawking – I don’t know if this mysterious cloaked woman, who we’ve seen a couple of times before, has ever been to the island, but she’s weird enough to be an Other.

The Butcher Lady – Ben asked this woman to do him the favor of keeping Locke’s body safe (I assume in her meat locker.) Somehow she knew that Ben was asking her to keep a body – I wonder if she also knew whose body. She has the same mission as Ben – I guess that’s to find the island. Maybe she had to leave at some point as well. Will we learn more about her? Have we seen her before? I don’t remember.

The Oceanic Six - With as complicated as the island events were, it’s nice that the “three years later” action in L.A. was easier to follow

Jack – He’s working alongside Ben to round up everyone to go back to the island.

Hurley – Hurley has managed to get himself into trouble. He is suspected of killing three people, who are actually Sayid’s handiwork. At the end of the episode he turned himself in to the police in order to avoid going anywhere with Ben. Let’s hope this story doesn’t turn into Prison Break!

Sayid – Poor Sayid. He married the love of his life, only to lose her in a car accident that appears to have been no accident. Since then he’s been working as an assassin. He spent most of the premiere unconscious on Hurley’s parents’ couch. When he woke up, he was concerned about Hurley’s whereabouts. Maybe Sayid knows something we don’t about Ben’s real intentions. Or maybe he’s just paranoid.

Sun – Sun is in negotiations with Charles Widmore to find and kill Ben. But she found time to stop by to see Kate and Aaron. It should be interesting to see Sun’s reaction to the idea of going back to the island.

Kate – Kate is freaking out because someone wants her to take a blood test to find out if she’s really Aaron’s mother. Who would want custody of Aaron? Is it Claire’s mother? Or someone who doesn’t believe the Oceanic Six story?

Aaron – He’s just being cute. I like this little boy better than baby Aaron.

Wow. There are a lot of characters on Lost. Can’t wait to see what happens next!

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2 Responses to “Lost Gets Wrinkled in Time”

I, too, immediately thought of Roach when I saw Sean Whalen and wondered what he has been doing since then. I think Ben sent the lawyers to Kate’s house to give her a reason to go back to the island (to hide). Did you know that pretty much every time we saw Aaron as a baby, it was a different kid? And sometimes Aaron was a girl.

Good assessment. I agree with Leah that Ben probably hired those lawyers to scare her into going back. He is a sneaky-pete! I had the same thought that Mrs. Hawking could be Daniel’s mom, but I am not committed to it. Also, that was crazy how he showed up in the Dharma time period. I bet he is there to figure some stuff out! Fun fun fun!!